1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic communication systems. More particularly, the invention is related to a mobile device with a touch screen that can provide or use information regarding its touch-lock state. The invention is also related to a method for operating a mobile device having a touch-lock state.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices are widely used because they can be easily carried and provide a wide variety of functions that extends far beyond a voice call function. Mobile devices are equipped with various input mechanisms to provide user functions. For example, input mechanisms can be implemented with a touch screen including a touch panel and a display unit. When mobile devices employ a touch screen, the touch screen can process a user's gesture to select a particular image displayed on the display unit, via the touch panel. After that, the mobile devices create a touch event corresponding to the user's gesture, and then control an application program corresponding to a user function according to the event.
Conventional mobile devices typically provide a ‘touch-lock’ function to lock the touch panel, thereby preventing touch events from occurring unintentionally. When a user intends to use a touch-locked mobile device, the user must first unlock the locked state in the mobile device. However, conventional mobile devices are disadvantageous in that, when they are locked with a touch-lock, they require a complicated touch event so that the touch-lock cannot be inadvertently unlocked by a user's simple gesture, and also require the user to perform complicated gestures to activate a particular user function.